To DerPapa:
Thanks , that you remind me about that…
Just cheked - it still has 592 faces.
It was cheked by three way - by max PolyCounter, by TinyCounter and by export in ASCII file - 592 faces.
I’am decided to put one more entry model.
Face COunt - 574.
Software - 3dsmax 4.0
Still working on the textures for both of them.
GL to all !
To mothermachine:
To render mesh with vertex paint you need to apply material to this mesh.
For diffuse color map choose type VertexPaint (or Vertex Color don’t remember at the moment) and press “Render” button.
strokes imaginary beard…
hrm…interesting 
are we allowed to use this method Dargon ?
G…
Great idea for a mini challenge! I might even get my entry in this time :rolleyes:. Hmmm 600 tri’s…tough one. First challenge for me, and first low poly modle in XSI :love:
but surely if you apply a new material to the mesh with Vertex Color in the diffuse slot, then you will loose any textures on it?
is there anyway to render out a mesh that already have UVWMapped textures + the vertex colour modifier work on it? both of them, not just the vertex color stuff.
this is really confusing 
MAX help files aren’t doing their work here :shrug:
i better get this straight in my head:
vertex color work is simply to “fake” shading and shadows, right? it’s not used to paint textures, since you need 1000 polys to get proper detail.
so, it’s simply used as a modifier on top of your existing UVWmapped mesh which has textures on it.?
Right. It’s only the colour value blending from one vertex to another. You can get some nice shading with it, but it’s by no means a perfect system, just an incredibly cheap one.
default_human - Yes. It doesn’t matter how you get the data for the vertex colouring, be it prelighting with basic settings, hand painting, or prelighting with mental ray, the data is the same in the end, just colour settings on individual verticies.
Just a reminder, this challenge is being mirrored at GamingArtist.com. Check it out here.
im a lowpoly newb sorry for these dumb questions:
what exactly is prelighting? is it synonymous with lightmap (by the way can we use lightmaps?) or is it like the method where you GI light your model with simple flat colors then use the baked GI light as lighting information to paint on over in photoshop?
It’s more like the 2nd, but it bakes the lighting information to the verticies of the mesh. You don’t paint over them in photoshop, and they don’t effect the textures, except in the usual ways light does.
Finished up the first part to my tutorial on Prelighting. You can find it here.
Hopefully that will help some, I’ll be posting how to actually accomplish these in Max and Maya tomorrow.
To mothermachine:
As a matter of fact, you don’t need separate material to store vertex colors.
They will be saved in vertex data (coordinates,UV and other).
But if you want to see how the model will looks in 3dsmax you should do next:
1.Aply “VertexPaint Modifier” to your mesh.
2.Paint whatever you want.
3.Collapse stack (at this moment you already have model with painted vertexes)
4.Apply to the mesh material.Type of the material “Blend”.
5.Now will going to setup two parts for blending.
Material 1: type Standart: diffuse map - type “Bitmap” (for textures)
Material 2: type Standart: diffuse map - type “Vertex Color”
In the propeties of Blend material setup “Mix amount” (for exemple 0.5)
6.Apply this material to your mesh.
If you have several bitmaps applied to your model then your Material1 is:
type Multi/Sub-object:
Material1: type Standart:
diffuse map - type “Bitmap” (texture_1)
Material2: type Standart:
diffuse map - type “Bitmap” (texture_2)
and so on…
To Hexodam:
If you want to export your model with vertex paint - YES.
And if you wana just render it in 3dsmax than - NO, you don’t have to.
I’ve found a very very basic tutorial in vertex colours in MAX:
http://www.mnmug.com/vpnongamer.htm
I finally figured out how to get them to render using this tutorial.
Thanks to the writer 
Thanks for that mm! It’ll help once I get around to finishing the Max part of the prelighting tutorial. BTW, if anybody knows how to do prelighting in any other programs, feel free to add to that tut.
Hey Dargon - we’re all looking forward to reading your MAX pre-lighting tutorial bigtime here. I have some mates who are doing this challenge without entering on CGTalk (for practice) and they are gagging for your turorial I just thought i’d post a quick stop-gap until you have it ready
one question: do we post our final images/details in our WIP threads or do we start a new thread for that? or will you start your own final thread which we submit our work to?
I think this is going to be a fun challenge. Count me in. I already have my tomb modeled, just gotta texture it.